


Supernatural, Season 8, Episode 7, A Little Slice of Kevin

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s08e07 A Little Slice of Kevin, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 08, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22842724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and later seasons. Complete.





	Supernatural, Season 8, Episode 7, A Little Slice of Kevin

Open to a group of pre-schoolers playing outside. A demon takes a little boy into a bathroom, there’s glow-y lights and extreme weather, and when the swinging door fully opens, both demon and child are gone.

Meanwhile, Dean is driving when he thinks he sees Cas. He immediately reverses the Impala to get out and look around, but Cas is nowhere in sight.

At the cabin he and Sam are temporarily adopting, Sam notices something’s up with Dean, but Dean assures him he’s fine. Seeming to accept this assertion, Sam talks about the missing boy and extreme weather. He explains the kid isn’t the first person to be abducted in relation to freaky weather. It’s been happening all over the country, and there’s no noticeable link or overwhelming commonality between the victims.

Meanwhile, Crowley is torturing heaven’s most adorable angel, Alfie.

It amuses me he wears an apron. I can see why humans would wear one- dry cleaning bills can be expensive, and dry cleaning employees might feel compelled to report anyone who drops off an order with a significant amount of blood all over it- but as a demon, can’t Crowley either magically clean the clothes or just get as many new ones as he wants?

Crowley wants more names, and Alfie explains the next generation hasn’t been born yet.

In response, Crowley does a bit more torture just for funszies before taking off the apron to leave. He goes out to where a group of people, including the little boy, are waiting. The little boy scampers off, and he addresses the adults.

At the Tran hideout, Mama Tran drenches Kevin with holy water when he comes back with groceries. He fusses at her as he reapplies the salt across the door. She tells him they’re not going to keep running for the rest of their lives. She’s found a witch named Delta on Craigslist to work with her to build another demon bomb.

They do a video chat with her, and it’s established she almost has all the ingredients.

Meanwhile, Sam and Dean talk to the woman who took the child to the bathroom. She claims she woke up in a nearby park with no idea what happened. Speaking into his phone, Sam performs an exorcism. It has no effect, and Dean explains he’s speaking in code so that the woman wouldn’t be able to reveal anything under enhanced interrogation.

Oh, wonderful. They have a confused, scared, guilt-ridden woman who has no idea what happened to one of her charges, knows she might still get in trouble for whatever did happen, and Dean just implied she might end up being tortured.

Sam asks about the smell of sulphur, and she confirms it was present. Realising a demon was likely responsible for the boy’s abduction, they leave.

During the night, Sam is sleeping. Dean is doing research, and he thinks he sees Cas outside at the window. Going over, however, he only sees his own reflection.

Hearing Dean getting out of bed, Sam wakes up, and Dean explains he thought he saw something. “Cas.” He explains about seeing him earlier.

Forgetting what universe they inhabit, Sam insists it’s impossible for Cas to be back.

Dean expresses his guilt. He insists he tried and could have gotten Cas out, but Cas didn’t fight hard enough. Sam tries to comfort him, “You did everything you could.” Then, he tells Dean he needs to not let survivor’s guilt destroy him (Dean). Clasping Dean’s shoulder, he goes to the bathroom.

Dean has another flashback of Purgatory. Cas and Benny bicker, and Dean is not comforted by the fact they may be taking directions from someone untrustworthy.

Cas tries to prepare Dean for the fact this may not work by pointing out it’s a human portal.

Of course, Dean’s response is, “Stow it, Cas. You’re coming; that’s final.”

Grabbing Dean’s shoulder, he responds, “I’m just saying. If it doesn’t work: Thank you, for everything.”

“Save the hallmark,” Dean retorts. He insists no one will be left behind.

Back in the present, Dean stands quietly.

Over to Crowley, the little boy is nowhere in sight, and apparently, earlier, Crowley gave all the abductees pancakes and orange juice.

The abductees have decided Crowley might be an alien, and ignoring this, he shows them the tablet.

One of the responses is, “I don’t read Chinese.”

“Talk about the dumbing down of America,” he remarks.

This is an unfair statement. They probably don’t to people who know how to read them, but for people who don’t, Chinese characters, Hieroglyphs, Enochian, and so on can look largely similar.

One of them demands his one phone call, and Crowley kills him.

Terrified, one of the women tries to read the tablet as if it’s the Declaration of Independence, but she and Cas might get along as there’s the minor issue of it being upside down. Although, again, for a person who doesn’t know how to read a language, it isn’t unreasonable they wouldn’t know if they were looking at it upside down or not.

Meanwhile, Delta arrives at the Tran hideout, and Mama Tran squirts her with holy water.

“My mother, you’ve met.” Kevin hands her a towel. Heh.

She asks where the bathroom is, and Kevin points the way. Before she can get there, however, Mama Tran expresses unhappiness at the limited amount of supplies she’s brought. Delta says more will be forthcoming once she receives full payment.

As she walks away, Kevin checks her out, and Mama Tran is not pleased.

Over at the cabin, Dean is washing his hands and face in the bathroom. From the bedroom, Sam tells him not all the abductees were American.

There’s a rustling, and just as has happened in the past, Dean looks up to see the reflection of Cas. “Hello, Dean.”

The next scene is of Sam and Cas sitting. Dean stands. Cas explains he’s been trying to reach them but wasn’t at full power, and Sam theorises this is why Dean kept seeing him.

Dean goes on about how difficult and dangerous it was to get out of Purgatory before asking how Cas managed it by himself.

Cas agrees it doesn’t make sense. However, the truth is, he doesn’t know how or why. He was running and hiding from Leviathan, and then, suddenly, he was on the side of the road in Illinois. There’s a long moment of silence, and he announces, “I’m dirty.”

Literally, he is, but I wonder if he’s also speaking in a metaphorical sense.

He goes to clean up, and Dean has another flashback to Purgatory.

Cas suggests Benny was lied to. Benny is so good at lying he can spot a liar. He asks if angels aren’t supposed to be all about faith.

“Not particularly,” Cas answers.

They find the portal, and Dean and Benny start the ritual so that Benny can hitchhike in Dean’s body.

“A lot of trust in me, brother,” Benny comments.

“You earned it.”

They finish the ritual, and Dean and Cas move on. Leviathans appear.

Back in the present, Sam asks if Dean’s alright in a way that implies he doesn’t understand why Dean wouldn’t be.

Either this was a bad line reading, or Sam can be an insensitive idiot.

Sitting down, Dean explains how clearly he remembers Purgatory, and thus, he can’t believe Cas is clueless as to how he managed to get out. Sam asks if he thinks Cas is lying.

Dean doesn’t believe the story, but he doesn’t want to accuse Cas of lying, either. He doesn’t want to believe Cas is, and after everything, maybe some part of him believes Cas wouldn’t. “I’m saying something else happened.”

He continues Cas was in no shape to fight his way out.

Before they can come up with any ideas on whom or what brought him out, Cas appears from the bathroom, clean-shaven, his scrubs replaced with his suit, and his trench coat clean. Dean’s body language is interesting as he takes him in.

Over to the Tran hideout, Mama Tran uses misogynistic language when she argues with Delta. She says, in the service industry, a person delivers the goods before being paid. She claims even hookers know this.

She’s both right and wrong. To use restaurants as an example, in some restaurants, people eat, and then, pay, but in others, they pay, and then, receive their food.

Delta is awesome here. “Says you. See, my sister’s a hooker. So. Hookers get paid, first, and then, you get the goods.” She continues, as she isn’t the one with demons after her, she doesn’t have much to lose if the Trans renege.

Mama Tran orders Kevin to get her purse. She sarcastically comments Delta’s mother must be so proud.

“She is. Of course, with my sister, the bar ain’t real high.”

Kevin sees there’s been a disturbance of the salt line at one of the windows, and he rushes out.

Crowley appears with another demon in tow. “Hello, Delta.”

Her response to the Tran’s outrage and disbelief is, “I’m mercurial.”

Crowley snaps his fingers. This either simply sends her away or kills her. Mama Tran begs to be taken in Kevin’s place. He tells the demon to kill her, and he and Kevin disappear.

However, Mama Tran has a water gun full of holy water, and frell if she’s not going to use it.

At the cabin, Cas is happily watching TV, and Sam’s working on his laptop. Dean comes back. He and Sam talk about the case, and recognising the names of the abductees, Cas interrupts. He says they’re all future prophets, but I think he means potential prophets. It seems unlikely each of them will be awakened.

He reminds them all angels instinctively know the names of all prophets, except for those who have yet to be born. He continues only one prophet can exist at a time.

Sam asks how Kevin’s a prophet with Chuck around.

Cas claims he’s not sure what exactly happened to Chuck, and they realise Crowley has taken all the potentials prophets.

Standing up, Cas walks over to them. He says he has a feeling something’s going on.

Sam gets a call from Mama Tran about Crowley taking Kevin.

In the abduction pad, Crowley explains, either Kevin helps, or he dies.

Kevin is a little traumatised by his mama’s supposed death. Crowley isn’t sympathetic as he points out, in fairness, she was trying to kill him and his kind.

I know Crowley doesn’t care about having the high ground, but _in fairness_ would probably mean more if she hadn’t started after he kidnapped her son and possessed her.

Kevin counters that Crowley will just kill him after he reads the tablet, and Crowley wonders if all young people are so cynical. He continues he’d rather have Kevin than any of the others, but he’ll take what he can get. Then, to show his seriousness, he kills another one of the potentials.

Elsewhere, the trio is waiting for Mama Tran in a car.

Dean has another flashback to Purgatory. He and Cas dispatch the Leviathans before getting to the portal, and the memory of them holding hands once Dean is in the portal and him being unable to hold on is repeated.

Back in the present, he asks to talk to Cas privately.

Outside the car, he demands to know what happened. He emotionally insists he didn’t leave Cas behind.

In a nice bit of acting from Collins, Cas looks at Dean in worried confusion. He knows this. What he doesn’t know is why Dean is having his freak-out.

Then, realisation starts to hit as he asks, “So, you think this was your fault?”

Before they can get to the significant part, though, Mama Tran appears. She gives them Kevin’s notes. Then, showing her awesome side, she opens the trunk. It has a devil trap on the inside lid and the demon from earlier inside.

If anyone screws with Mama Tran or her son, and she’ll hand deliver them to their worst enemies.

As Dean is torturing the demon, an apron-less Crowley is torturing Kevin. After losing a finger, Kevin agrees to translate. However, when he starts translating, Crowley is bored with what he translates.

In Atlantic, Iowa, the trio plus Mama Tran pulls up to a building.

Sam apologetically handcuffs Mama Tran to the steering wheel, and Dean and Cas open the trunk. After confirming this is the building, Dean kills the demon.

What’s his excuse for not doing an exorcism? It’s not as if the demon could possess any of them, and sure, it might be difficult to deal with the human once non-possessed, but said human would still be alive.

Inside, Crowley’s playing with a toy of some sort, and Kevin tells him about a section explaining how to seal the gates of Hell.

Meanwhile, Sam, Dean, and Cas are sneaking into the building. They kill a demon.

Back in the room, Kevin discovers a personal note from Metatron. Crowley calls Metatron a suck-up.

There’s a brief scene of Sam looking at all the demons down below.

It’s revealed the note says, once Metatron’s done with the tablet, he’s out.

Sam uses a demon bomb on the demons.

Elsewhere, Cas tells Dean, “We’re very near Kevin.”

Sam finds the prophets, including the little boy. Sam assures them he’s here to help.

A demon attacks Dean and Cas, and Cas kills him. This weakens him. Clasping a hand on his shoulder, Dean realises aloud Cas isn’t at full strength.

Kevin finishes reading the note, and Crowley is confused. When Kevin tries to explain what a word means, Crowley makes it clear he knows the definition of the word, he just doesn’t understand what Megatron’s message is truly saying. Heh.

Dean is trying to pick a lock, and Cas says he’s going in. Dean immediately and forcefully protests, “You’re not strong enough.”

Crowley declares there are more tablets. There’s rustling, and looking unsteady on his feet, Cas has appeared. Crowley asks which Castiel he’s dealing with this time, “Madman or megalomaniac?”

Insisting Kevin is coming with him, Cas withdraws a knife. Crowley poofs a knife for himself. Kevin smartly withdraws from the line of fire.

Then, Cas starts to get the glow-y eyes, and the shadow of his wings appears. He keeps showing more power as Crowley insists he’s bluffing.

Inquiring if Crowley wants to take the chance, Cas extends his palm towards him. Crowley makes a grab for the tablet, and Cas tries to do the same. The result is, Crowley disappears with half, and Cas has the other.

Dean bursts into the room. He kneels down to where Cas fell before looking over at Kevin.

Outside, Sam explains to the Trans that the cops are coming to pick up the potential prophets. The Trans will go with Garth, though, Garth doesn’t appear in this episode. He lays on the guilt towards Mama Tran for hiring Delta, and then, asks how Kevin is holding up.

Kevin has a new determination to seal the gates of Hell, and Sam tells him Cas might be able to fix his finger.

Over by the other car, Dean is unhappy with Cas’s charging in without him. He points out Cas could have been killed. Cas’s justification is he wasn’t killed, and plus, it worked.

“And if it didn’t?”

“It would have been my problem.”

This is essentially Dean’s whole self-philosophy. If something bad happens, it’s his fault for not being able to stop it. If something good happens, it’s because he was strong enough to make it happen. Letting anyone help him deal with his emotions is foreign, because, he’s supposed to make sure they don’t affect anyone, and if they don’t affect anyone else, it doesn’t matter how they internally affect him as long as he can keep it together externally.

People with this sort of philosophy don’t take well to other people with it. It’s okay for them to be self-sacrificing, but whenever people try to do for them, even if it’s not actually a sacrifice, it’s not okay.

“That’s not the way I see it.”

“Hey, not everything is your responsibility. Getting me out of Purgatory wasn’t your responsibility.”

“You didn’t get out! So, whose fault was it?”

No one is owed forgiveness, and basing emotional well-being on whether someone forgives a person or not isn’t good. The most important forgiveness is self-forgiveness. Angel from the Jossverse thought redemption was unattainable but still believed he had to try to strive for it anyways; this is similar to conversations numerous characters on different shows have had. A character can never fully make up for what they did, but this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try anyways.

The key to Angel’s redemption was for him to forgive himself. This what redemption is: No longer requiring forgiveness.

God can forgive Cas, and so can Dean, Sam, and various others, but it isn’t going to matter until he can forgive himself.

I think this is where this starts to sink in. He knew Dean would be upset, but he didn’t know Dean would claim his actions as a product of Dean’s failure. Sometimes, self-punishment is necessary when trying to right wrongs, but once a person makes things as right as they can, if they choose to keep punishing themselves instead of moving on, their loved ones suffer. They may not mean to, but they’re also punishing them as well as themselves.

“It’s not about fault; it’s about will.”

Cas was determined to do one thing. Moreover, one of the few things people often can’t do is stop others from making a decision they disagree with. If a person wants to rebel, if they want to break a world record, etc., they’ll often find a way. If they can’t, if they really want something, there’s a good chance they’ll inspire other people to do it or set things in motion for a future generation to do so. Look at martyrs, suffragettes, civil rights leaders, and so on; none of them lived to see their dream fully-realised, and it’s unlikely these newer generations will, either, but they couldn’t be squashed even in death, and neither can their goals.

Cocking his head, he inquires, “Dean, do you really not remember?” Upon Dean’s insistence he does, Cas says, “No. No, you think you know. You remembered it the way you needed to.”

Dean doesn’t appreciate the guilt Cas is heaping on, and as he brings his fingers towards Dean’s forehead, Cas says, “Dean, just look at it. Really look at it.”

He touches the forehead. Dean has a memory of holding Cas’s hand and Cas deliberately wrenching away with the order, “Dean, go!” Before he can get over the shock, the portal takes him.

The memory lingers on Cas alone.

Then, Cas says, “See, it wasn’t that I was weak. I was stronger than you. I pulled away. Nothing you could have done would have saved me, because, I didn’t want to be saved.”

There’s some interesting word usage in the first two sentences. Some of what Dean said might imply he blamed Cas for not being able to hold on, but the issue is clearly he thought he was the weak one. It was his job to hold onto Cas’s hand and pull him out, but he couldn’t. However, in a way, Cas is right about how he was the stronger of the two. Suicide prevention is an admirable goal, but the sad truth is, if a person truly wants to die, they’ll likely find a way.

Continuing, Cas says, “It’s where I belonged. I needed to do penance, for the things I did on Earth and in Heaven. I didn’t deserve to be out, and I saw that clearly while I was there. I- I planned to stay all along. I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

Part of Cas’s penance was separation from Dean. He knows this is his worst punishment. He rebelled partly because he found himself agreeing with the Winchesters and partly because he’d lose Dean if he didn’t. I don’t think he blames Dean for any of his actions; he made his own choices. However, he knows Dean is both his biggest strength and weakness and the one whose forgiveness he values the most. Dean is also the one who he believes he deserves forgiveness from the least.

Just as he knows himself, he knows Dean. Dean forgave him before Purgatory. When they were reunited, Dean hugged him and refused to blame him for abandoning him. Benny was the one who pushed, and once Cas explained why, Dean automatically accepted it. It was forgiven and mostly forgotten.

Cas did try to tell Dean, several times, but Dean made it clear he’d die trying to get Cas out. If Cas had told him, he might have knocked him out and forcibly dragged him or found some other way to force him. At the portal, if he’d rolled away instead of taking Dean’s hand, Dean might have jumped out to go after him.

So, instead of letting Dean have any chance of stopping him, he stopped trying to tell him, focused on trying to make sure Dean didn’t take it too hard when it didn’t work, and when he realised Dean couldn’t come after him, he let go. He watched Dean disappear back to Earth, Sam, and hopefully, a place where Cas could never hurt him again.

Now, Cas says, despite Dean’s efforts, Dean can’t save everyone.

Before Dean can answer, Sam appears. He asks if everything’s okay. Answering in the affirmative, Cas explains they were just straightening a few things out.

As Sam’s talking, Cas suddenly appears in a white room. A woman named Naomi introduces herself. She explains she sent a bunch of angels, many of whom lost their lives, to rescue him from Purgatory. In return, he’s going to have “little chats” with her. She asks about Sam and Dean, and he gives brief summary of the episode’s resolution.

“Why am I telling you any of this?”

She tells him to go to the Winchesters when they call and help them. She adds he’ll report to her regularly, and he’ll never remember doing so.

“No, I won’t do that.”

She smiles, and her pale blue eyes already give a hint of what role she falls into. Dismissing him, she declares him the brothers won’t even know he was gone.

Back on Earth, Sam asks if Cas is with them, and noticing his distraction, he asks if he’s alright.

Cas answers he’s fine, and looking at Dean, he says he’s with them, “If that’s all right.”

This is a cool moment. Both Winchesters did notice something was up, but Sam’s more willing to accept what Cas says without looking further. Dean isn’t, but with those four words, Cas makes Dean believe he understands the cause. Cas is worried about their relationship, because, they both know Dean is hurt, angry, confused, and sad at the revelation.

Therefore, Dean gives a jerky nod, and Cas goes to get in the car.

Sam asks if Dean and Cas really are okay, and hoping he doesn’t lose Cas again, Dean lets go of all the above as best he can. “Yeah.”

People can’t force other people to forgive themselves. All people can do is forgive the others and hope it’s enough. Some people use the fact they’re not forgiven by others as an excuse. Take this away, and maybe, it’ll force them to confront why they refuse to stop hurting themselves.

Fin.


End file.
